Get Organized Now!™
There's No Better Time to Get Organized,
Than to Get Organized Now!™
Organize your home. Organize your office. Organize your life.
Over a Million
Visitors Per Year
The free Get Organized
Now!™ Idea-Pak is filled
with tips and ideas to help
you organize your home,
your office, your time and
your life!
Want hundreds of little-
known tips to help you
organize your home, your
office and your life? Get our
free, weekly Get Organized
Now!™ E-mail Newsletter.
It's read by over 181,999
subscribers, and growing
each month.
We respect your
privacy. Your e-mail
address will never be
shared with or sold to
anyone.
Copyright 1998 - 2010
Effective Business Systems
Get Organized Now!™
611 Arlington Way
Watertown, WI 53094
All information on each page of this Web site, including our discussion forum, and
all information in our newsletters and e-mail correspondence, is protected by
copyright laws. Reprint is strictly forbidden, unless stated otherwise on individual
pages. Anyone posting copyrighted material or correspondence, without
permission from the owner of this Web site, will be liable for damages. For reprint
permission, please contact the owner of this Web site.
By Maria Gracia - Get Organized Now!™
Want to get organized? Get your FREE Get Organized Now!™ Idea-
Pak, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your
office and your life, at the Get Organized Now!™ Web site
To Submit Your Own Organizing Question,
Please Scroll Down
Reader Question
We are preparing to downsize from a 3-story
(with full basement), 4-bedroom house to a 2
or 3 bedroom town house with a walk out
basement. The thought of weeding through 37
years accumulation of 'stuff' is so
overwhelming that I can't get started. I have
boxes of photographs to organize. I don't know what to do with
old sewing patterns that no longer work. The rest of it is just
things that I have saved over the years--clothes, memorabilia,
toys, books, not to mention the furniture we don't plan to take.
Can you help me get a running start?
--Kathy Burkman, Lincoln, NE
Our Response
Dear Kathy,
It’s super important to focus on the fact that you need room to
live. Almost any sized house is plenty large enough if you keep
your clutter under control. It’s easy to fall in the trap of thinking
we need more space to keep all of our stuff!
First, don’t think of it as weeding out 37 year’s worth of stuff.
Focus on one small area at a time. Vow to weed out your clothes
closet today, declutter your kitchen pantry tomorrow, tackle under
your bed the next day, and so on. Little by little, you’ll be making
lots of progress!
Laundry/Clothes clutter: Do you really use and/or wear all of the
clothes, shoes, purses and accessories that you have. Very few
of us do. Be brutal and see if you can’t weed some out. In a
nutshell, people tend to wear only 20% of the clothes they own.
Newspapers & Magazines: Without exception, make a plan to
toss the newspaper at the end of each day. When you receive a
magazine, you usually have a month to read it. When the new
one comes, toss the old one. If you’re not able to read it over the
course of a month, consider dropping the subscription.
Old sewing patterns: Donate them to a senior center or your
favorite charity.
Old Photographs: Just put them all in acid-free photo boxes and
sort them after your move. This type of work is too detail-oriented
to try and do before you downsize. You’ll see more of a dent by
getting rid of the larger items.
Memorabilia: Be sure it truly means something to you, and limit
yourself to one to two boxes of the most special things. Give the
rest away to family members or donate them.
Reader Clinic Submittal
Have an organizing question? We'd love to hear from you.
Please fill in your answers to all questions below. Then press SEND. If
your browser does not allow you to use forms, just type all of your
answers in an email and send the email to
Your tips and ideas may be printed in one of our future newsletters as
a featured Reader Tip. In addition, it may be published in one of our
future books, with your name, city and state!
By submitting this form, you agree to allow us to reprint your tip(s) or
idea(s) in our future publications. Be sure to read our newsletter each
week to find out if your tip was chosen to be featured.
Thank you!
Maria Gracia
